Jaipur, July 17:
A team of the Rajasthan Police has left Jaipur for the fancy resort in Manesar, near Delhi, where 18 congress legislators have been camping since the weekend. For now, the person of interest among them as fas the police is concerned Bhanwar Lal Sharma, who, according to the Congress party, is heard on tape discussing bribes from the BJP as part of a conspiracy to bring down the Rajasthan government headed by Ashok Gehlot.
This morning, the Congress announced that it has suspended Bhanwar Lal Sharma and another MLA, vishwendra Singh, who is also, according to the party, recorded while discussing cash transactions with the BJP.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has alleged that Mr Pilot, who, till Tuesday was No 2 in his government, was directly involved in the alleged horse-trading.
Mr Pilot, after being sacked as Deputy Chief Minister and president of the Congress unit in Rajasthan, has taken his party to court to challenge the move to disqualify him and 18 others as MLAs. The Congress says they acted against the party by defying instructions to appear at two meetings this week that were chaired by Mr Gehlot. Mr Pilot is being represented by top lawyers Harish Salve and Mukul Rohatgi. The former was Solicitor General in Atal Behari Vajpayee’s government; the latter was Attorney General for the Modi government till 2017.
